Caper in the Castro no longer exists. All images and code has been lost to time. There’s scarcely a flicker of information on the internet. Programmed by CM Ralph in the late 80s and distributed on underground BBS networks, it stands proudly outside of public perception despite boasting one of the most important accomplishments in the history of interactive entertainment. Caper in the Castro is probably the first LGBT videogame ever made.
I learned about Caper like a whisper. It was just some scarcely acknowledged footnote in time. But it seemed wrong to me that such an undeniably important moment had never gotten its just due. I went searching for CM Ralph, and through a particularly lucky combination of Google searches, I found a mysterious little blog and an email address. My query? “Are you CM Ralph?”
After a few more emails, she agreed to an interview. The following is a brief Q/A that has CM Ralph speaking about the groundbreaking game she programmed nearly 30 years ago. We hope it gives the historical record a little more context.
Paste Magazine: Talk to me a little bit about your history. How long have you been coding? Do you still code now?
CM Ralph: I was always keenly interested in computers since the introduction of the PC, so I dabbled in programming but only as a hobbyist. Caper was really the first and only time I’d ever programmed anything seriously.
Paste: There aren’t a lot of details about Caper in the Castro. Tell me a bit about how that game worked. Was it an adventure game? A puzzle game?
Ralph: The game was a murder mystery/problem solving game written in HyperCard on a Mac Plus. The back story was that the player assumed the role of a lesbian detective investigating the disappearance of a transgender woman in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco. As the player solved each problem they grew closer to finding the missing woman. The game employed a mixture of graphics, text and sound to create the neighborhood the player would explore.
Paste: Why did you want to make Caper in the Castro? What was the inspiration behind it?
Ralph: In 1988 I had moved from Southern California (behind the orange curtain) to the San Francisco Bay Area. I was so impressed and grateful for the freedom of the LBGT community here as compared to what I had lived in down in SoCal. I wanted to give back to the community and also create a way to raise money for AIDS Charities. The game was distributed as “Charity Ware” and instead of asking for payment, I requested that people who downloaded the game donate money to the AIDS Charity of their choice.
